32 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



public efforts in furnishing educational facilities for the colored peo- 

 ple, especially in preparing pupils for the field that was now widen- 

 ing every day as a result of its early missionary efforts. The Pea- 

 body fund was also being distributed in a discriminating and effect- 

 ive way, and the friends of education were greatly encouraged. The 

 tide had turned. Public sentiment had at last come up almost unto 

 the strength of unanimity for public education, and it was being gen- 

 erally conceded that the most pressing duty was the breaking up of 

 the great mass of illiteracy, and that the negro must be educated to 

 be fitted for the duties of citizenship. 



The outlook in 1875 was still more encouraging, Delaware had 

 organized a thorough school system under a new law, the colored chil- 

 dren being provided for by a special tax levied on the colored popula- 

 tion. West Virginia reported five normal schools, having 557 students 

 and 85 graduates ; Korth Carolina, 600 teachers in training in teachers' 

 institutes and normal schools " for a demand that could not be sup- 

 plied " ; South Carolina, 39 pupils in the State Normal School ; Ala- 

 bama, three State Normal Schools and live similiar institutions sup- 

 ported by societies, all having 659 students, of whom 533 were 

 believed to be colored ; Mississippi, two State Normal Schools for 

 colored pupils, with 351 students. Arkansas had taken a fresh start 

 under the provisions of its newly adopted constitution. In the State 

 Industrial University 58 white students were being trained as teachers, 

 and in another institution sustained by a society, 156 were in training 

 for colored schools. In Tennessee, a normal school had been estab- 

 lished. Kentucky for the first time included the colored children in 

 the enrollment of school-children. There was no State Normal School 

 as yet, but 140 normal pupils were reported in two institutions, and 29 

 graduates from the Louisville Normal School. Missouri returned three 

 State Normal Schools, with 644 pupils. 



The year 1876 was a presidential year, and was not favorable, 

 on the whole, to the interests of education. Nevertheless, Commis- 

 sioner Eaton, in summing up the results of all the reports from the 

 South, was able to say that " after a careful review of these facts, and 

 an attentive consideration of them in their several relations, and with 

 full recognition of the same backward tendency in certain other locali- 

 ties, I am increasingly convinced that their local public sentiment will 

 not tolerate any further retrogression in these States ; and that the 

 friends of education may, on the whole, anticipate for their efforts 

 increasing public favor." 



In 1877 the reports from the South were gratifying and encour- 

 aging. The reconstruction period was ended, and we found ourselves 

 getting on rising ground. The total number of negro children of 

 school age in the late slave States was 1,513,065, and those enrolled, 

 571,506. There were for these 10,792 schools ; besides which there 

 were twenty-seven normal schools, with 3,785 pupils ; twenty-three 



